Without him, whenever I cast my eyes, this earth seems
to be forlorn. Even this forest with its blossoming
trees and so full of wonders, without Arjuna seems
not so delightful as before. Without him who is
like a mass of blue clouds (in hue), who hath the
prowess of an infuriated elephant, and whose eyes
are like the leaves of the lotus, this Kamyaka forest
doth not seem beautiful to me. Remembering that
hero capable of drawing the bow with his left hand,
and the twang of whose bow sounds like the roar of
thunder, I cannot feel any happiness, O king!’
And, O monarch, hearing her lament in this strain,
that slayer of hostile heroes, Bhimasena, addressed
Draupadi in these words, ’O blessed lady of slender
waist, the agreeable words thou utterest delight my
heart like the quaffing of nectar. Without him
whose arms are long and symmetrical, and stout and
like unto a couple of iron maces and round and marked
by the scars of the bow-strings and graced with the
bow and sword and other weapons and encircled with
golden bracelets and like unto a couple of five-headed
snakes, without that tiger among men the sky itself
seemeth to be without the sun. Without that mighty-armed
one relying upon whom the Panchalas and the Kauravas
fear not the sternly-exerting ranks of the celestials
themselves, without that illustrious hero relying upon
whose arms we all regard our foes as already vanquished
and the earth itself as already conquered, without
that Phalguna I cannot obtain any peace in the woods
of Kamyaka. The different directions also, wherever
I cast my eyes, appear to be empty!’
“After Bhima had concluded, Nakula the son of
Pandu, with voice choked with tears, said, ’Without
him whose extraordinary deeds on the field of battle
constitute the talk of even the gods, without that
foremost of warriors, what pleasure can we have in
the woods? Without him who having gone towards
the north had vanquished mighty Gandharva chiefs by
hundreds, and who having obtained numberless handsome
horses of the Tittiri and Kalmasha species all endowed
with the speed of the wind, presented them from affection
unto his brother the king, on the occasion of the
great Rajasuya sacrifice, without that dear and illustrious
one, without that terrible warrior born after Bhima,
without that hero equal unto a god I do not desire
to live in the Kamyaka woods any longer.’
“After Nakula’s lamentations, Sahadeva
said, ’He who having vanquished mighty warriors
in battle won wealth and virgins and brought them unto
the king on the occasion of the great Rajasuya sacrifice,
that hero of immeasurable splendour who having vanquished
single-handed the assembled Yadavas in battle, ravished
Subhadra with the consent of Vasudeva, he, who having
invaded the dominion of the illustrious Drupada gave,
O Bharata, unto the preceptor Drona his tuition fee—beholding,
O king, that Jishnu’s bed of grass empty in
our asylum, my heart refuses consolation. A migration
from this forest is what, O represser of foes, I would
prefer for without that hero this forest cannot be
delightful.”